San Juan football team looks to avenge 2024 loss to Grantsville as they open new season

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
A year ago the San Juan High School football team was riding a 37-game winning streak as they traveled to Grantsville to open the 2024 season against the 3A Cowboys.
That streak came to an end in a hard-fought 36-30 loss on the GHS football field, but the Broncos went on to win 11 of their remaining 12 games, closing the season with their fourth straight 2A Utah State Championship.
This Friday, August 15 San Juan will travel to Snow College in Ephraim where they’ll play Grantsville in the opening game of a brand new event that will feature eight teams – the Rural Utah Football Preview.
The game is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. and you can catch all the action live in the first Friday Night Lights broadcast of the season starting at 4:30 on StreamUtah.Live and Redrock 92 Radio.
The Broncos will be looking to put together a more solid effort against the Cowboys than they mustered a year ago, but they’ll have to do it with a new-look team.
Sophomore Beau Yeomans takes over for Jaiten Knight at quarterback, and although he has shown some exciting promise, it will be a challenging test for the young playcaller.
He’ll face third-year starter, junior Dallan Van Vliet, who threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns against the Broncos last year.
San Juan senior running back Jagger Nieves will look to rack up a lot of yardage against a defense that held him to just 55 yards on ten carries a year ago.
Bronco players and coaches have put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears getting to this point, and they’ve been eagerly anticipating the 2025 season opener for nine months. Now it’s here.
I sat down with ninth-year San Juan Head Coach Barkley Christensen this week to talk about the team, the upcoming season, and his unquenchable love of football.
That conversation appears here mostly in its entirety. You can listen to it on the Redrock 92 Morning Show on Wednesday, August 13 and during the pregame broadcast this Friday.
Rhett Sifford: Coach, it’s just amazing how fast the season comes up. We were just talking about what little you guys can accomplish before the season starts and what the players are responsible for themselves in the offseason, but I know you guys are ready to go for another football season at San Juan High School.
Barkley Christensen: Yeah, we’re super excited. I think this is the best week of the year leading up to the first game. I think this first football game helps set the tone for a lot of things, not just for the football team, but it sets the tone for the school and the community. These kids have been working really hard and we couldn’t be more excited it’s finally here.
RS: I’ve enjoyed being a part of this for the last four years. I feel like I get a little credit for your four straight titles, but you’re looking for five straight this year. There’s no stopping, it’s hard work, and it’s right back to the drawing board for you guys starting this year.
BC: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is. We were talking about Georgia [before this interview], but I think I heard Coach Kirby Smart at Georgia talk about, you come back and you’re not defending a championship because that was last year’s team. We’re not defending anything. We’re going to go out and attack this thing and go get it because this is a brand new year and everybody starts with a brand new slate.
RS: The feeling in sports or in life in general, it’s almost like if you stop actively climbing the mountain you’re not going to stay where you are, you’ll fall backwards.
BC: I tell the kids that all the time: You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. Whatever you’re doing in life, you’ll never stay the same at anything. They’ve taken to that; they’ve put the effort in every single day and we’ve had great attendance, I’d say around 80 percent all summer long. And then when the [practice] season started everybody’s been there and been working hard. We’re all super fired up.
RS: We’ve talked about this and we’ve had this scenario a couple times over these few years where you’ve lost some key players. That’s just the nature of high school ball. You’ve got a young quarterback this year. In years past we’ve said there are some unproven kids coming in and they’ve come in and just become studs for you guys right off the hop. What are your thoughts about this team this year heading into the season?
BC: Right now it looks great, but your studs don’t prove they’re studs until Friday night, so this Grantsville game will be a good test of where we actually are. Last year they beat us, but it was a big learning moment. We could kind of see where we truly were, and I felt like we got a lot better after that game. These kids are sick of hitting each other. After so long it just gets old and they’re ready to play a team. But again, that’s when we’re going to find out who’s ready to step up and who’s going to be the studs. We ended last week on a really good Thursday practice. Everything was clicking offensively, the defense looked really good, and Friday night is going to be the true test. It’s going to tell us everything.
RS: The season is long and you guys have never shied away from tough competition. That starts in the first game against Grantsville – the team that took you down last year and ended that winning streak. Is there a bit of revenge in the heart of these kids that they want to come out with in this first game?
BC: Oh yeah, you can feel that but but to your point with your last question, a lot of them didn’t play in that game. We have some young kids, so a lot of them are just trying to prove how good they can be. I don’t think we’re truly looking too much into the “Kill Grantsville and get revenge” in that way. It’s just “Let’s prove that we can go ball out and play ball.” But of course we want this one. I mean, it’s a big one. We do want to get Grantsville.
RS: You guys, in one classification or another, are playing a ton of top-ranked teams this year.
BC: Yeah, that’s how we want it. We try to get the toughest schedule. It’s super hard to get games here. Part of it is because we’re good and another big piece is geography. People don’t want to travel here. So we have to take what we can get, but I’m very blessed that the Grantsvilles, the Beavers, the Kanabs – like you said, some top three teams in other classifications are willing to play us.
RS: And because of that now you’re stuck again this year with only four home games, so you’re going be on the road six times during the regular season. I don’t think that really bothers you guys because pretty much the same crowd that’s going be here at home will be with you on the road. They all travel.
BC: Yeah they’re great, and technically this neutral game that we have week one is considered a home game for us. It’s not. It’s four hours away. I’ve already had a lot of people tell me they’ve gotten their hotel rooms booked and they’re all excited for this one. I think it’s just a good experience for the kids.
RS: Talk to me about this team, and we can start with the offense. There are a couple of new kids we’re going to see, starting at the quarterback position. Just talk about your guys and talk about the offensive team we’re going to see this year.
BC: At quarterback we are going to roll with Beau Yeomans. He’s a sophomore and so far he’s looked really good. The thing with him is he gets better all the time. Like, we’ll go to a 7-on-7 and he’s going up against some of the top talent in the state of teams we’ll play. We’ll sit down and watch film the next week after that and we can talk about things he can improve.
He’s so good at picking things up mentally and he’s improved every single day. He’s very smart. He’s not going to be a big runner like we’ve had in the past. We can adjust with that because we have such a good running back with Jagger [Nieves] and a great offensive line. We do have some young guys there.
Returning starters on the offensive line are Cash Palmer, Remy Whatcott, and Trey Bradford, so it’s nice to have three of those guys back. Some newcomers: Trei Bass will be playing center and Keilan Hutchins is kind of a rotational guy who has a lot of reps and he looks good. He’s a big kid. At the other guard spot we have Gaige Palmer who will be a sophomore, Cash’s brother. They’re opening up holes. We went and camped with Richfield and Snow Canyon and we could run the football all day long against those teams. You just give Jagger a crease and he’s going to go.
In the receiving corps we got a little bit beat up over the summer. We’re hoping to have Cole Duke back, but he’s kind of a gametime decision. Tripp Palmer is an obvious stud. It’s nice for Beau to have a 6’4” target who can go up and get it. Nache Young’s been tough at the slot. Jonas Jeppeson and Miken Keith have stepped up on the outside, and then Brigg Palmer is a sophomore. He’s going to get some time at receiver.
So there are lots of sophomores playing but our offense has a ton of firepower. The issue with having four sophomores playing is when we look good we look like a prime state championship team, but we can turn around on the next drive and go three-and-out just like that. So that’s what we’re trying to correct. The ceiling’s high but we have to raise the floor a little bit.
RS: What are you most excited about offensively?
BC: Just the different ways we can attack people. We can go empty-set with Jagger and he’s just as good a slot as he is a running back. Then we can get heavy and get George McNaughton in the game as a tight end, we can get Stetson Black in the game as a fullback / tight end. We can even have Keilan Hutchins as an extra lineman when everybody’s healthy.
I’ve never really done that. I’m usually a ten-personnel, no-tight-end guy. We’ve added some before, but we’re usually spread-you-out-and-throw-it-all-around. This team has the ability with so much depth down there on the line that we can get super tight and just get Jagger creases. So that’ll be hard to game-plan for because we can get it out so fast.
RS: Okay, talk to me defensively. Are you guys excited about the defense this year and what do they look like?
BC: Yeah, the defense is flying around and they look good again. We have some returning starters again. Cash Palmer at nose guard. He’s a big kid who’s tough to move. Remy Whatcott will kind of help him because they’re going to get tired since they’re playing both ways. It’s nice having depth there. Stetson Black is another returner. George McNaughton is a great All-State-caliber defensive end. He’s back. We’re going to move Jagger to outside linebacker just let him use his speed to cover guys.
Another sophomore, Max Stearns will be playing on the outside. He’s a big, tough kid who’s had a great camp, a great summer. At middle linebacker, Jonas Jeppeson, Thomas Harden, and Kai Fox. Those three upperclassmen have waited for their time and they’re hungry. They play downhill. Tripp and Brigg Palmer at the safety positions have a lot of length and they’re playing well.
Nache Young and Cole Duke are at the corners. Cole is a little bit banged up. Miken Keith has been getting time there. Another sophomore, Quincy Singer, has also gotten some rotational time. So we’re a little bit young in some areas, but it’s going to be tough to run on us just because we’re so big up front.
RS: Tell me about what the rest of the week looks like and what’s the attitude? I know you guys are ready to go. I know the team is ready to hit other people besides themselves.
BC: Yeah they’re beat up from hitting each other so we’re all excited to get away from that. The big thing that we’re trying to stress this whole week, especially with with so many young guys potentially playing, is that the varsity level is a whole other level than C-Team that they were playing last year.
I don’t think you’ll ever actually realize that until you experience it, so that first quarter or two is going to be pretty telling of where they truly are. We’re going to leave Friday morning to try to get there three or four hours early and get in and get guys taped and get moving around. In preparation for this big first game, we’ll go at it on Wednesday, then Thursday is kind of our final dress rehearsal before we head over.
RS: You guys focus on playing your game and you like to get a lead early. You found yourself in a dogfight with this team last year. Now that you have that experience behind you, if you’re not in the lead, what does that look like for you and how you might adjust or how you approach the game and how might you help the kids with some youth approach the game?
BC: That’s actually a really good question because when we play these bigger schools that has always kind of been our kryptonite – that we have so many kids going both ways and they don’t. Grantsville has a full team of offense and a full team of defense. So if we don’t jump them early, in the long run most of these teams will start wearing us down at the end.
So we’ve kind of gone back-and-forth – do we try to slow it down? That’s just not our game. We’re going to go get it from the first kickoff and if we wear down we wear down. That will just tell us we probably have to be in a little bit better shape. So we’re going to learn a lot. We’re going to attack it and try to win this thing quick.
RS: And in prepping for Grantsville is there anything different for them this year? I know you don’t have the benefit of game film for this year so you kind of come in blind a little bit, but how do you prep for them? What are their main weapons and what do you think you have to do to shut them down?
BC: Yeah, that’s another great question. Their head coach is the same but they got a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator. So I have tried to do everything from researching online to social media to try to find any type of highlight that I could find. We did end up finding a team that they camped with and we traded some film with them so we got 30 plays of film.
It’s not the greatest film in the world but it’s something, so we’re able to see what they’re doing offensively and defensively. They have a great offense because they bring a lot back. Their quarterback is a junior this year but he has started since he was a freshman, so he has tons of experience. Their wide receiving corps – two kids who scored touchdowns on us last year, Jensen and Fawson, are back.
They’re probably not as strong defensively as they were last year, but they return a lot of guys and they’re still a good team. They have so many kids in their school and on their team that they’re going to play hard. I’ve always said Grantsville and Delta are cut from the same cloth.
It’s organized chaos; they’re just trying to send pressure from everywhere and those kids play downhill. They want to hurt you and they want to hit you, so we’re just trying to get our kids not necessarily so prepped for the scheme but just for what that is going to be like on Friday.
RS: And the speed. This game will move a lot faster than what some of your guys moving up from JV and C-Team were used to seeing.
BC: Yeah, and we’ve tried to emulate it, I’ve tried to pound it in heads, but I just truly have to sit back and say they’re not going to get it until they get it. They looked good at a camp. When we’re fresh, like I said, we’re as good as anybody. We’ll see about three or four drives down the road. I still think they’re going to be great. We have all the talent in the world; it’s just that they have to stay mentally focused.
RS: At this point San Juan football is beyond well-known in the state. You guys are starting to try to make real big dents in some of the state record books and be on there forever and you already are. Do these kids and you guys relish playing with such a large target on your back at this point? What’s their feeling about that or is that even a thought?
BC: Well, I enjoy it; I love that. And I think they do too but I truly don’t know. And maybe I’m way off base, but they just show up and they go to work every single day, but I don’t think they realize how big this has become around the state. They just kind of stay in their bubble, they do their thing here, they do what is asked of them, and then they go play. So obviously they know there are high expectations. I enjoy that stuff but those are all past teams. This team hasn’t done anything yet.
RS: This year you’re going to see some teams that can play up to your level and give you a run for your money. In your region these past few years it just has been really easy for you guys. Do you want to see more of a challenge? Do you want to have to fight for your way as this season goes along? Would you like to see the region kind of come up to you guys’ level at some point?
BC: That’s another good question because that’s one I get asked quite a bit. Of course we would like some more competitive games in a way, but at the same time the work these kids put in, they are battling. They are having those battles all summer long that nobody sees. It is nice because when the season comes around if you’re a fan you just think, “this is easy,” but you don’t see the broken collar bones and dislocated shoulders and broken hands and the blood, sweat, and tears that come on these kids’ faces every single day from when school lets out until this moment right now.
So everything they’ve done is definitely worked for and earned, but it’s like anything in life. You see somebody who’s successful and say, “Man, I wish I could be that guy,” but you don’t understand what they’re doing to get there. So they are battling. It is hard for them. And the other teams are rising. They are coming, but I just think the formula right now is just what our kids are putting in during the offseason.
RS: You guys always look so calm, cool, and collected when you’re on the field. I like what you said during Media Days that you love that butterfly feeling of competing. There’s always a level of nervousness, there’s always that level of excitement and that you don’t know what exactly is going to happen and that’s fun and that gives you that adrenaline rush. What is your feeling coming in? Do you feel ready? Do you feel like some things have been overlooked? What are your thoughts as you get ready for this first game?
BC: Right now I feel like we’re ready. This week of practice will gauge that a little bit more. But it’s kind of like last year, like you mentioned, that these game ones are just hard. They’re different because you truly don’t know what you’re going up against. So I think as far as getting ready as much as we can, yes we feel ready. But that could all change after the first kickoff when we’re like, “Okay, this is what they have, that is what they have,” and then we’ll know.
RS: Do you feel like this is a group that can adjust on the fly pretty easily?
BC: Yeah, but not as much as in the past just because of our youth. We went against a different defense this summer and it took us a minute to [adjust]. That’s a good challenge for me to have, to go back to having to teach everything from the basics. That’s where I should start every year. I’ve kind of taken that for granted just because we’ve had so many returners who could kind of get guys moving along.
These young guys were playing middle school ball two years ago and now they’re jumping into the big show, so sometimes it’s like you’re speaking a foreign language. They’ll pick it up. They’re smart, but we have to just get so much film on it and sit down and go over it. Mid-season, yes, I think they’ll get there, but right now I don’t know because I haven’t seen it. I haven’t had to.
RS: Yeah, you have to get out on that game field. Coach it’s amazing how fast the seasons go. It’s amazing how fast they come back. I hate to speak for you, but I would say you probably wish there were 52 games in the year and that there were no other sports to worry about.
BC: Yeah, I wish. Me and football. Because this is just what I do. I enjoy it year-round. I love it to death. It is nice having a little break because I do get some time to study tape and study other teams and watch film and learn from other coaches. That’s the greatest part about it is you can make it a year-round thing because there’s so much that goes into football that I can always stay learning.
RS: Coach, we do appreciate you chatting with us. It’s time to get it started. We’re looking forward to this game one and we know we’re going to see a lot of fun football, a lot of good football this year. We’re looking forward to this year and we know it’s going to be fun watching you guys.
BC: We’re fired up. I got the butterflies right now just thinking about it. Thank you. We’ll see you guys Friday. Go Broncos!